Liet International (West Frisian: Liet Ynternasjonaal), formerly Liet-Lávlut, is a song contest for musicians who speak any of Europe's regional or minority languages that was held the first time in Friesland in 2002. The goal of the festival is to boost interest in Europe's minority languages, especially with young people.
Liet International began in 2002 as a spinoff of the Frisian-language song contest Liet (West Frisian for "song"), held annually in Leeuwarden/Ljouwert since 1991. The first three editions of Liet International likewise took place in Leeuwarden. Since 2006 it has been held in a different city each year. The 2006 and 2008 contests, held in the Swedish Sápmi, were titled Liet-Lávlut (lávlut is Northern Sami for "sing").
Since 2008 Liet International has been organized under the patronage of the Council of Europe.
Contests were cancelled in 2007 and 2013 when the hosting organizations, in Narbonne and Corsica respectively, backed out at a late stage. No Liet International was held in 2015.
The winners of certain song contests for particular languages or groups of languages automatically qualify as entrants for Liet International. These contests thus function as selection rounds for the international contest. They have included:
Additional entrants are chosen from applying artists by a selection committee.
The first Liet International song contest was held on April 28, 2002 at the De Harmonie theatre in Leeuwarden/Ljouwert, Friesland, the Netherlands. The West Frisian-language Liet contest was held on the previous night, and in a pattern that would be repeated in future editions the winner of Liet went on to represent Friesland in the international contest. However in later years Liet International would be held some months after Liet.
Both the jury and public awards were won by the Catalan band Pomada for their song "En Pere Galleri".
The second Liet International contest was again held at the De Harmonie theatre in Leeuwarden, on November 23, 2003.